Message from the Chair

Year after year, Turkey has been among the most represented countries outside the United States at the ASRM. As a doctor of Turkish origin, I, along with Dr. Erkan Buyuk of Albert Einstein Medical College in New York, and Professor Timur Gurgan of Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey, have led a four-year initiative to create a Turkish Special Interest Group. At each of these unofficial, yet heavily attended, meetings, participants showed a strong spirit of involvement and contribution to both the would-be special interest group, as well as the ASRM itself. The group's members are young established clinicians and reproductive scientists from the USA, Turkey, and Turkish states around the world. While the seemingly common denominator between these members is the ability to speak and understand Turkish, the group is open to all who are interested in getting involved in the European aspects of reproductive medicine and interacting with international colleagues.

While the group will hold its first official gathering at the 2013 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine, this inaugural meeting will coincide with a joint event with the International Federation of Fertility Societies. For this reason, the occasion will be very fitting. I am currently looking forward to serving as the Chair. Dr. Gurgan will serve as the Chair-Elect, Dr. Buyuk as the Vice-Chair, and Dr. Sonmezer as the Secretary/Treasurer. The group will hold its first official elections in 2014 to choose a new Secretary/Treasurer, as the current officers move forward and I rotate to the Past-Chair position. Within the Turkish SIG itself, I would particularly like to thank Dr. Buyuk for spending a considerable amount of time and energy both finalizing the guidelines and getting them approved by the rest of the group. I also would like to thank the steering committee (Drs. Timur Gurgan, Serdar Bulun, Recai Pabuccu, Aykut Bayrak, Cihat Unlu, Emre Seli, Erkut Attar, Ozgur Oktem, Orkun Tan, Hikmet Hassa, Necati Findikli) for its help in forming the SIG group and bylaws.

We are looking forward to working with the major fertility societies in Turkey to build a closer relationship with the ASRM, and are hoping that our group will serve as the primary conduit for this effort.

See you all in Boston!

Kutluk Oktay, MD, FACOGChair, Turkish SIG

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